Stanley Melbourne Bruce CH MC PC (1883 - 1967)

Ancestors

Preceded by Billy Hughes

8th Prime Minister of Australia 9 February 1923 to 22 October 1929

Succeeded by James Scullin

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early Life 1.2 Education & Early Career 1.3 Marriage 1.4 Military Service 1.5 Political Career 1.6 Later Years 1.7 Honours 2 Sources

Biography

Genealogically Defined

Stanley Melbourne Bruce, Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, CH MC PC FRS, became Prime Minister in 1923 when he was only 39. He was Australia's second youngest Prime Minister, led the first all Australian-born Cabinet, and was the first to have had no involvement in Federation. Bruce held the office for six and a half years until he lost his seat in the election in 1929, due to his uncompromising stand on industrial relations.^[1][2]

Early Life

Born on 15th April 1883 at St Kilda, Victoria, Bruce was the youngest of five children of John Munro Bruce and his wife Mary Ann, née Henderson.^[3] Both of his parents were born in Ireland to Scottish families, and were first cousins via their mothers. His father, John, was a talented businessman who became a partner in a Melbourne importing firm, Paterson, Laing and Bruce. The family lived in comfortable circumstances until the depression of the 1890s, when John Bruce lost most of his fortune.^[4][5]

Education & Early Career

The family spent some time in England while Bruce was a child, and he began his formal education at Eastbourne in East Sussex. In 1891 in Victoria he entered a Toorak prep school run by Miss McComas, who remembered a delightful boy, serious, earnest, very good-looking, always 'a little gentleman' and very self-reliant. Bruce went on to Melbourne Church of England Grammar School in 1896, where he captained football, cricket and rowing, was a cadet-lieutenant, and in 1901 school captain.^[4][5]

Bruce worked in the Melbourne warehouse of Paterson, Laing & Bruce in 1902 before going to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was a Cambridge rowing Blue in 1904 and in later years sometimes coached for Cambridge. After he graduated B.A. in 1905, Bruce trained with Ashurst, Morris & Crisp, a leading firm in commercial law, and read for the Bar. He was appointed acting chairman of Paterson, Laing & Bruce in October 1907, and next month was called to the Middle Temple.^[5][6] The management of the firm was the reason for his living in London. His elder brother Ernest was in charge of the Australian end of the business.^[4]

Marriage

In 1913 Bruce married Melbourne-born Ethel Dunlop Anderson in Sonning, Berkshire, in England.^[7][8] The couple had no children, and were the first residents of The Lodge, the now official Prime Minister's residence which was completed in 1927 and intended to be only a temporary residence.^[9]

Military Service

Captain Bruce, Royal Fusiliers, WW1

During the Great War, Bruce enlisted in the British army, and was commissioned in the Worcestershire Regiment in February 1915 as a temporary Lieutenant.^[10] Seconded to the Royal Fusiliers as temporary captain, he fought in the Gallipoli campaign and was awarded a Military Cross.^[11] He also received the Croix de Guerre avec Palme in recognition of the support his battalion had given the French.^[12] After being wounded twice, Bruce was invalided back to London when his knee was shattered by a bullet. He spent the next two years on crutches.^[13]

Political Career

Bruce returned to Australia in 1917 and entered parliament when he won the House of Representatives seat of Flinders, in Victoria, as a Nationalist Party candidate, in a by-election on 11th May 1918.^[14] In December 1921 Bruce was appointed Treasurer in Billy Hughes' government.^[13]

Prime Minister Stanley Bruce with wife Ethel at The Lodge, Canberra

He was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9th February 1923, when the Country Party refused to assist the Nationalist Party to form government while Billy Hughes remained as Prime Minister.^[14] He was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in the same year.^[15]

Bruce adopted the ‘Men, Money, Markets’ policy for economic development, by obtaining labour and capital from the United Kingdom for expanding Australian industry to provide products for the British Empire, while being protected by preferential tariffs. He also developed Canberra as the national capital, where the first meeting of the Federal Parliament took place on 9th May 1927.^[13][16]

Bruce's attempts to overhaul Australia's industrial relations system caused frequent conflict with the labour movement. His radical proposal to abolish Commonwealth arbitration in 1929 prompted members of his own party to cross the floor to defeat the government. In the resounding loss at the subsequent election Bruce lost his own seat, an event unprecedented in Australia and one that would not occur again until 2007.^[16]

He returned to parliament again in February 1932, as the United Australia Party's candidate in Flinders, and resigned this position in October 1933.^[17]

Later Years

In October 1933 Bruce commenced serving as Australia's High Commissioner in London, a position he held for 13 years.^[18]

In 1947 he became Viscount Bruce of Melbourne - the only Australian Prime Minister to be awarded a peerage.^[2]

He became the first chancellor of the Australian National University in 1951, a position he held for ten years.^[18]

Bruce died in Westminster, London, at 84 years of age, on 25th August 1967, just months after his wife's death.^[19] His ashes were scattered, in accordance with his wishes, over Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra.^[18]

Honours

• Military Cross, United Kingdom (1915)^[11]
• Croix de Guerre avec Palme, France (1916)^[12]
• Order of the Companion of Honour (1927)^[20]
• Fellow of the Royal Society (1944)^[21]
• Viscount (1947)^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ Portrait of Prime Minister Stanley Melbourne Bruce and his wife Ethel Bruce. (National Archives of Australia, accessed 23 Mar 2022)
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} About Stanley Bruce. National Archives of Australia, accessed 23 Mar 2022)
3. ↑ Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, Victoria. Online index - Birth (accessed 23 March 2022) index entry for BRUCE, Stanley Melbourne (Father: John Munro BRUCE, Mother: Mary HENDERSON, Birth Place: STKI, Australia, Registration number/year: 20038 / 1883).
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Heather Radi, 'Bruce, Stanley Melbourne (1883–1967)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1979, accessed online 23 March 2022.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} Stanley Bruce: before office. (National Archives of Australia, accessed 23 Mar 2022)
6. ↑ Register of Admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple. Volume II, 1782 to 1909. (The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, accessed 23 Mar 2022)
   

   20 Apr 1904 - STANLEY MELBOURNE BRUCE, of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, (20), fourth son of the late John Munroe B., of Victoria, Australia, merchant. Called 18 Nov., 1907.

7. ↑ "England Marriages 1538-1973". FindMyPast Transcription (accessed 23 March 2022). Stanley Melbourne Bruce (30) marriage to Ethel Dunlop Anderson (33) on 12 Jul 1913 in Sonning, Berkshire, England.
8. ↑ "England Marriages, 1538–1973 ", database, FamilySearch (FamilySearch Record: N6WS-T78 : 13 March 2020), Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1913.
9. ↑ Wikipedia contributors, Ethel Bruce, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (accessed March 23, 2022).
10. ↑ Supplement to the London Gazette, 22 February 1915. page 1823. (London Gazette, accessed 24 Mar 2022)
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1} Supplement to the London Gazette, 2 February 1916. page 1337. (London Gazette, accessed 24 Mar 2022)
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} Supplement to the London Gazette, 24 February 1916. page 2068. (London Gazette, accessed 24 Mar 2022)
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1 13.2} Stanley Bruce. (National Museum of Australia, accessed 24 Mar 2022)
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1} Stanley Bruce: elections. (National Archives of Australia, accessed 24 Mar 2022)
15. ↑ Second Supplement to the London Gazette, 29 June 1923. page 4605. (London Gazette, accessed 24 Mar 2022)
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1} Wikipedia contributors, Stanley Bruce, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (accessed March 23, 2022).
17. ↑ Stanley Bruce: fast facts. (National Archives of Australia, accessed 24 Mar 2022)
18. ↑ ^{18.0 18.1 18.2} Stanley Bruce: after office. National Archives of Australia, accessed 24 Mar 2022)
19. ↑ England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007 (FindMyPast, http://www.findmypast.com : accessed 24 March 2022) database entry for Bruce, Stanley Viscount (Age: 84), GRO Reference: 3 quarter 1967 in the district of Westminster, Volume: 5E, Page: 721.
20. ↑ https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33292/page/4405 Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood.] London Gazette, 8 Jul 1927, page 4405. (London Gazette, accessed 24 Mar 2022)
21. ↑ Bruce; Stanley Melbourne (1883 - 1967); Viscount Bruce of Melbourne. (The Royal Society, accessed 24 Mar 2022)

See Also:

• Wikipedia - Stanley Bruce
• Australian Dictionary of Biography - Stanley Melbourne Bruce
• National Museum of Australia - Stanley Bruce
• Museum of Australian Democracy (Old Parliament House) - Stanley Bruce
• Wikidata: Item Q23358